News

Innovation is often depicted as a lightning bolt moment, a sudden flash of genius that solves a complex problem. In reality, bringing an innovation to life is a grueling slog up a treacherous mountain, and often, the ...

There’s a big mystery in biology called Peto’s paradox (named after statistician and epidemiologist Richard Peto, who first observed the oddity in 1977).

This year the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences went to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt, for their explanation of “how innovation provides the impe­tus for further progress.”

On Thanksgiving, Donna and I typically do four turkeys, all deep-fried. We used to do one regular, oven-cooked turkey to get dressing, but who needs dressing when you can have more deep-fried turkey instead? The only ...

This year’s Nobel Prizes have been announced, and the one that caught our eye is not the prize in chemistry or physics or even medicine, but economics.

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Horror’s Hidden Genius: What Special Effects Can Teach Us About Innovation

In theory, a patent is the best way to legally protect your innovation. A patent grants you exclusive rights to your invention for a period of time, preventing others from making, using, or selling it without your per...

In 1953, on his wedding night, Robert Kearns popped a celebratory bottle of champagne in his hotel room. The cork flew into his left eye, leaving him legally blind in that eye. A decade later, this unfortunate acciden...

The Curious Case of the Segway: A Visionary’s Ride to Reality (and Back Down Again)

For more than one hundred years, a war has been waged. You may have never heard of its name, but you have almost undoubtedly been an unwitting participant. The war began in the United States but has since spread acros...

In 1946, Genrikh Altshuller was working in the inventions-inspection department of the Caspian Sea flotilla of the Soviet Navy. As he reviewed countless patents, a question started to nag at him: What makes inventions...